Does everything happen for a reason?

Does everything happen for a reason?

When people have to cope with difficult situations in their lives, they sometimes reassure themselves by saying that everything happens for a reason. For some people, thinking this way makes it easier to deal with relationship problems, financial crises, disease, death, and even natural disasters such as earthquakes. It can be distressing to think that bad things happen merely through chance or accident. But they do.

The saying that everything happens for a reason is the modern, New Age version of the old religious saying: “It’s God’s will.” The two sayings have the same problem – the complete lack of evidence that they’re true. Not only is there no good evidence that God exists, we have no way of knowing what it is that he (or she) wanted to happen, other than that it actually did happen. Did God really will that hundreds of thousands of people die in an earthquake in one of the world’s poorest countries? What could be the reason for this disaster and the ongoing suffering of millions of people deprived of food, water, and shelter? Why do people find it reassuring that the Haiti earthquake happened for a reason such as the will of God, when such terrible events suggest a high degree of malevolence in the universe or its alleged creator? Fortunately, such events can alternatively (and with good evidence) be viewed as the result of accidents, and possibly even of chance.

The idea that chance is an objective property of the universe was advocated in the nineteenth century by the great American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, who called this doctrine tychism, from the Greek word for chance. Scientific support for the doctrine came in the twentieth century with the development of quantum theory, which is often interpreted as implying that some events such as radioactive decay are inherently unpredictable.

Even if events that affect human lives do not happen by quantum chance, many of them should be viewed as happening by accident, in the sense that they are the improbable result of the intersection of independent causal chains. The deaths in Haiti, for example, came about because of the results of many causal chains, primarily (1) the historical events that led to millions of people living near Port-au-Prince, and (2) the seismic events occurring in the tangle of tectonic faults near the intersection of two crustal plates. These deaths were accidental in that the intersection of the unconnected causal chains was unpredictable. Neither history nor seismology are random, but their intersections often are so unforeseeable that we should call them accidental.

The doctrine that everything happens for a reason has intellectual variants. The German philosopher Hegel maintained that in historical development the real is rational and the rational is real. Similarly, before the recent meltdowns in the financial system, it was a dogma of economic theory that individuals and markets are inherently rational. Some naïve evolutionary biologists and psychologists assume that all common traits and behaviors must have evolved from an optimizing process of natural selection. In history, economics, biology, and psychology, we should always be willing to consider evidence for the alternative hypothesis that some events occur because of a combination of chance, accidents, and human irrationality. For example, Keynes attributed financial crises in part to “animal spirits”, by which he meant the emotional processes that can make people swing between irrational exuberance and pessimistic despair.

But if the real isn’t rational, how can we cope with life’s disasters? Fortunately, even without religious or New Age illusions, people have many psychological resources for coping with the difficulties of life. These include cognitive strategies for generating explanations and problem solutions, and emotional strategies for managing the fear, anxiety, and anger that naturally accompany setbacks and threats. Psychological research has identified many ways to build resilience in individuals and groups, such as developing problem solving skills and strong social networks. Life can be highly meaningful even if some things that happen are just accidents. Stuff happens and you deal with it.

No, I don't think that everything happens for a reason. Sometimes things happen and there is simply no reason or explanation for it. Sometimes unfortunately, things just happen that’s out of our control, like being at the wrong place at the wrong time. But almost always, things happen because of a choice or decision we made. When things happen in our lives that we don’t like, it’s a matter of attitude to use what happened to us as a learning experience. It's a good coping mechanism. All we can do is hope to have a second chance to correct our mistakes and make things right. One thing I say after someone goes through a bad time (not during), is that every time I've gone through some storms in life, I’ve learned more about myself and I learned more about who my real friends are, because it sometimes takes extremes for people to show their true colors. Now most people who say everything happens for a reason, doesn’t want to take responsibility for the bad choices they made that has led or will lead to a bad outcome, an outcome that may, will or has changed their lives for the worse forever. Which is a bad coping mechanism, because it keeps people in denial for the bad choices they make and attribute it to a magical force that has their lives planned out. They believe they make no mistakes and have no regrets.

Do some people use this line of thinking in order to project their negative actions onto some intangible being? Of course. But not everybody does.

Thinking that things happen for a reason is faith. For some people, believing that you're not alone helps you to get through tough times. Yes, perhaps whatever bad thing happened to you, you helped to cause. But in believing that it happened for a reason doesn't mean you're not taking responsibility for your part in it, if nothing else, it can help you to better accept things.

Being fired or having a relationship end may be in part due to your actions, but believing it all happened for a reason doesn't mean you're unaware you did something wrong. The best we can do is learn the lesson that needs to be learned (perhaps this is the reason the bad thing happened?) and try to be better from here on out. Alex, having no regrets and making no mistakes are two very different things. I have no regrets, yet I am the first to tell you that I make tons of mistakes. I am by no means perfect, yet the reason I don't regret my mistakes is because they all led me to where I am today. And while I have my ups and downs like everyone else, I love where I am today.

I think you need to look up what regret means, here let me help you. Regret is often felt when someone feels sadness, shame, embarrassment, depression, annoyance or guilt after committing an action or actions that the person later wishes that he or she had not done. A mistake more than often always leads to regret. If you have made mistakes then you have regrets.

What happened to those suffering in Haiti isn't just because the people where there and the earthquake happened. The people, or the government of the people, was completely unprepared for such disaster. The buildings were not to seismic code, no emergency training of personnel ever occurred, nothing was done to prevent a bad event from becoming tragic. You are right that the seismic zone that Haiti was in meant that the earthquake was going to happen. No one knew just when it will, but everyone knew that it will. It just happened to be now versus a month before, or 5 years later. What happened next had nothing to do with randomness. Any half-rate sociologist or military strategist would have been able to foretell with sufficient accuracy of what will happen to the people of Haiti once the ground stopped shaking.

I agree with you that the events that occur are usually chain effects of prior events. Unfortunately, the sheer complexity of all these effects, especially as they start to intersect each other, which in by itself affects those same events, makes it impossible for any human, or computer, to effectively be able to predict the future, or explain the past. That fact that we cannot explain the causal of, or accurately predict, events doesn't mean that the events are purely random. Pure randomness is a very rare thing in this universe, assuming that it even exists.

The events in our life happen because of what we do, what we do not do, and what others do. Those who are able to predict what action will bring what consequence tend to live more comfortable lives. Those who lack that ability tend to have lives that are filled with more-than-necessary hardships. However, in the end, we control our destiny's path, though maybe not our destiny itself.

To say that things happen for a reason is completely accurate, with the exception that the reason may not be beneficial to us, or originally had anything to do with us. It is not the events of our life that shape us or our life; it is our reaction to those events that shapes us and our life.

I don't believe anything is random. And yet past events don't always guarantee what feature events will be

There is a theory that says the past present and future are created at the same time.

If the past creates two present and future in the future event is not a random occurrence

I take it one step further even though I don't really believe in that very either. The theory is the Big Bang. But that would be one place for everything was created at the same time. Would you also leads to a lack of free will because everything even my actions were created prior to me taking them.

However knowing that you're going to create the future you should be able to control it.

Knowing that the future has already been created you should be able to see it

Unfortunately there is a visible Universe which is in our way. I still think the universe is infinite. I'm actually depending on it.

Eugene I would have to disagree with the idea that randomness is rare. As the author pointed out, quantum theory suggests that randomness is at the core of everything in the universe.

To suggest that the suffering in Haiti was predictable and the government was unprepared is a pretty great simplification. First, it wasn't just 7.1 on the Richter scale - an absolutely massive event that literally turns solid ground into liquid. If the same event happens in san andreaus there will be absolute hell to pay and plenty of suffering.

but more to my point - randomness is all around us. And terrible things happens all the time for what are - in practical terms - random events. A little girl falls off her bike into the path of a car, a DNA molecule mutates its code into instructions to create cancer, a meteor streaks out of the sky and destroys all life on a planet. In some theoretical, omniscient version of the universe there's a guy sitting at a computer saying "this guy is about to get cancer..." but in real life, these events are effectively random.

and so bad things happen all the time caused by what is more or less randomness.

By the way, good things happen all the time for the same reason, happy to say.

You'll probably never check back here at this date, but I'm sure if you did Eugene, you'd still agree with yourself, as I do.
A quantum theory suggestion that randomness is at the core of everything is off base. Even at the genetic level of mutation with randomness as a factor in evolution, does not mean that evolution is all chance. Randomness is one of the "reasons" to explain how evolution works, and reason explains how "accidents" work. And I think saying "everything happens for a reason" is a new religion, touches on the absurd in this universe "I" exist within regardless of whatever parallel one someone thinks they can walk in and out of at their leisure.

Once quantum physics has "chosen" an outcome, the laws of nature then apply and everything is then happening according to physics.
So i'm saying we dont know what will happen, due to quantum randomness, but surely the laws of physics will apply to everything? :-)

"Everything happens for a reason" - The saying is the first step to turning a negative into a positive.
With Failure comes the opportunity for greater self development and success in the future, with destruction comes the ability to rebuild, with broken relationships comes the chance to seek stronger relationships, with financial loss comes the motivation to make greater financial gain.
You can

At first glance I think the saying does infer that life and all its ups and downs are in the hands of the gods, however I think the real meaning of this saying is the total opposite, The future is in your hands, and its up to you to turn the negative into a positive, its upto you to find the reason, after all, everything happens for a reason.

Coincidently, I recently undertook the trip of a lifetime, a dream for me was to live in China and train martial arts with the shaolin for a year. After an eternity of saving and quitting my job of 5 years, I made it happen, however after just over a month of training I contracted MRSA, this was just 3 weeks ago, I have since been in and out of hospital in China and have now decided that I am in no state to train or reside in the mountains.
I am now sending this comment from a beach hut in Thailand where I am dosed up on antibiotics and hoping the infection will give up eventually......Did this happen for a reason..I may not be able to train with the Shaolin in China, but I perhaps have the opportunity to discover south east asia...who knows.

The below are taken from stevescottsite.com

Thomas Edison: Chances are you have heard of Edison in relation to overcoming failure before. He was a master of “trial and error”.
When asked about the many thousands of failures he had when trying to create the light-bulb he famously said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.“ But there is even more to it than that. As a child he was thought to be dumb and told that he would never be a success by many of his teachers, because his mind would often wander in class.
Good thing for us that the greatest inventor in history did not listen.
Elvis Presley: You do not need to be a Elvis fan to acknowledge the impact he has had on popular music. They don’t dub somebody the “King” of a form of music without a great amount of success.
But even for Elvis success came after failure. His first recordings went nowhere. After that he tried to join a vocal quartet and was told he, “couldn’t sing”. Finally, right before he became popular, he was told, “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.”
Michael Jordan: It is hard to imagine it, but the Jordan, who is arguably the greatest basketball player ever, was once cut from his high school team.
As Jordan puts it, “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Vincent van Gogh: Van Gogh paintings these days sell for incredible amounts of money. Four of his paintings have sold for more than 100 million dollars.
Yet, Van Gogh is a cautionary tale. In his life he was a failure.
He slowly began to build a “reputation” while he was alive, but he also had a ton of critics. He burned and destroyed many of his paintings out of frustration and was known to only sell ONE PAINTING.
He did not work to overcome his failure and killed himself. Soon after his death his work began to garner intense critical and financial success.
Stephen King: King was working as a teacher in rural Maine when he wrote his first novel, “Carrie”. King had some small success selling short stories previously, but nothing that anyone could create a “career” on. King submitted “Carrie” 30 times. King was rejected 30 times. Before his 31st attempt he threw the manuscript out. His wife rescued it from the round file and asked him to try one more time. The rest…is history.
Fred Astaire: During his first screen test an RKO executive noted that Astaire, “Can’t sing. Can’t act. Balding. Can dance a little.” Despite this initial rejection, Astaire persevered and ended up becoming one of the top actors, singers and dancers of his generation.
Abraham Lincoln: If Lincoln quit when the going got tough, the world might be a very different place. As a young man Lincoln entered military service in the Black Hawk war as a captain. Yet left as a private.
With very little formal education, Lincoln taught himself and became a lawyer and congressman.
His real rise to “national” prominence could also be viewed as a, “failure”. In 1858 Lincoln tried for a seat in the Illinois senate. This led to a series of hotly contested debates. (The Lincoln-Douglas debates). Lincoln lost the senate election, but really impressed a lot of the “right” people, even with his loss. Two years later he ran for president and won. Thankfully he did not let lack of formal education, initial failure or setbacks rattle him.
Albert Einstein: If asked to name a genius, most people would come up with the name Albert Einstein. Yet even for Einstein genius did not come easy. He had speech difficulties as a child and was once even thought to be mentally handicapped.
As a teen he rebelled against his schools reliance on rote learning and failed. He tried to test into Zurich Polytechnic, but failed again (although he did very well in the math and physics section…as you might expect). Einstein buckled down, received the requisite training and applied to Zurich Polytechnic again, and of course was accepted.
A few years later he had a PHD and was recognized as a leading theorist. A few years after that he had a Nobel prize for physics and began to be recognized as the genius of our modern era.

Anonymous,
I for one have not decided which way that I lean on the "things happen for a reason" debate. But one thing I do know for sure is that I am thorougly confused by your reasoning. You start by explaining why you are not going to train with the shaolin of China, a self-proclaimed life dream because of one set back. Then go on to detail all of the greats in history who didn't give up even though the faced defeat many times. This seems contradictory. Maybe you're supposed to buck up, get well and head into the mountains to train! Maybe the reason for you contracting MRSA is your first test as a pupil of the shaolin as I imagine the training will test your physical, mental and emotional limits. Just trying to make sense of your statement.
Good luck either way.

From a young, Christian perspective, I see things quite differently. If you were to ask me why I think horrible things happen in this world, I would probably explain that it's not God's will for those particular events to happen. God is all knowing, but he doesn't control us (free will) and doesn't control the obstacles "demons" place before us. I have a strong belief that God sees those things that are going to happen, mourns over them and decides to place good consequences or awakenings in result of that tragedy. Those who look for those consequences, or are the very subject to them, are usually the only ones that gain an understanding in the matter. Even if what I'm saying isn't true, though I know it is through personal proof of God's existence,at least I have eyes that can see good things seeping out of a crisis and allow reason to exist, instead of immediately dismissing that theres ever a reason at all.

I agree with you. Knowing and doing are two different things. God gives free will and that free will interacts with other random things, such as other free wills and accidents, etc. The only way one could say that everything happens for a reason is to know the reason it actually happened?????!!!!! Rather feeling positive about everything happens for a reason, I would feel upset and despondent at this thought because it would mean that I REALLY didn't have free will and nothing I ever decided to do made any difference.

Oh ye? Whats the reason for children starving in africa? Whats the reason for child abuse, terrorists, racists etc? If god was real all these things wouldn't be happening,so all you believers, pack up your bags people, gods not worth it.

There is a God. There is suffering because there is sin and a Devil that "comes to steal, kill, and destroy". But because I have truly seeked God, in my faith I have found Him. My faith goes stronger everyday because He reveals Himself and His knowledge to me, "for the sufferings of this present times shall not compare to the Glory that will be revealed in us". You may not ever agree, But know that I am a messenger of God and a truth speaker. He is very real.

I may not be able to give you any answers to the questions you have asked, but there is one thing that i know.
if you read the bible carefully, you will realise that you are in this world to prove yourself worthy of God's Kingdom, by this statement what i am saying is, if there is no evil, we can't prove ourselves. If God should just come down and solve all the problems in this world then once again, how do we prove ourselves?
Yours is just to believe and have faith that God is in control and know that our human mind is incapable of knowing or not developed fully enough to comprehend what is going on in this world

Oh ye? Whats the reason for children starving in africa? Whats the reason for child abuse, terrorists, racists etc? If god was real all these things wouldn't be happening,so all you believers, pack up your bags people, gods not worth it.

Submitted by Of course everything DOESN'T happen for a reason you idiots on November 1, 2012 - 1:03am

Lol only a fool (and an arrogant self centered fool) thinks everything happens for a reason....Just ask the people who were in the movie theater in Aurora if everything happens for a reason....or the students at Virginia Tech during there shooting in 2007 etc etc etc...Or the little kid that gets kidnapped and murdered by a mentally ill person etc etc etc.

Nothing happens for a reason you idiots...Everything good and bad that happens is purely random....It doesn't matter if you win the lottery or get gunned down in a movie theater....ALL random

It really breaks my heart that people think everything that happens to us, is random. Stop for a minute and think, if everything happens randomly,then this world will be chaotic.
Then what accounts for the randomness, things just happen, you happen to be born in a region in africa, where there is starving, that you just happen to get an accident and lose both legs.... I guess is easier for you to think this way.
Most people think this way because they are incapable of getting their minds around the fact that, everything that happens is for a reason and their is a reason for all the bad things that is happening in the world.......

How do you account for the fact that when there is a train or plane accident or similar major event, the number of people that do not board tht plane or train is statistically lower than a normal day. This is proven time and again by statistics, not someone's lone belief. There are other forces at play out there and whether you think things happen for a reason or they are random, facts and statistics.....

Its funny, really.
The people who feel life don't ask if things happen for a reason because they have no doubt. In their lives it is undeniable.
Only people who think life have doubt, always looking for a reason instead of living through the reasons.
If you find it deniable, perhap you refuse to be open to it. Or perhaps it simply has not yet revealed itself to you. Or perhaps it will all make sense in the moment after your last breath. And this idea that only free-will or determinism can be, is very narrow thinking.
Next I suppose you'll try to tell me this multiverse is a universe!

hmm well isn't this interesting, I'm just an average 14 year old so all im going to say is i know its hard but try to look at the bigger picture:)Humans don't understand everything........ in my opinion saying that that bad things happen merely through chance or accident just shows that you don't have a very open mind. It seems like some people can't think for themselves, don't let other people influence your opinions so easily. Most people i know would agree with the article (unlike me).....oh well...........listen to bob Marley- "emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, non but ourselves can free our minds" wise words ;)

i certainly believe that everything happens for a reason, there are no random or accidents incidents happening to us. The only difference is how its explained, some people choose to attribute it to a supernatural being, others karma e.t.c.
But once we can explain the causes of, most of what happens to us, then we can confidently say that, things happen to us for a reason.
I am inclined to believe that, you can't blame God for the thousand of people dieing and starving in africa. Why!
When God created us, he gave his the ability to survive and if for any reason you decide to starve, then you are to blame. For example if your father gives you good eduaction and for any reason you are out of a job, i don't think you will expect your father to still look after you and it does not make him a bad father.
So its up to everyone to make a living, God has given everyone what it takes.

Wow... you didn't think trough your response. What would you say about the little 6 year old kidnapped in the night to be tortured and sexually abused? Is the child to blame for being little? You should stop watching fox and see real news so you can have a clear view of how f** up the world is.

its sad what happened to the 6 year old child, and the child is not to blame for being kidnapped. My point from the earlier response is, there are reasons for everything that happens to us and you cannot blame God. There are bad people in this world and i think its the duty of every parent to protect their defenceless children.
If they don't, these are some of the consequences and God will hold them accountable

So your point is that there is a reason for everything that happens and we should just shut up about it. Please tell me ¿What would you say to this little kid if he could ask you what is the reason for what happened to him?

I am not saying you should shut up about it, all i am saying is that it is not possible to comprehend how the world works, but i certainly believe no matter what happens to us, no matter how horrible it may be, there must surely be a reason, though we might not see it now, at the end of the day, we will know how that terrible experience impacted our lives. You must make a cautions effort to make it impact your life positively.

We all fit into the puzzle of the world to make it complete, the little kid's life might be a wake up call for thousands of parents to be protective of their children, though it might be painful especially to the parent, he might have saved thousand of children's lives.

The fact that i cannot give you any solid reason does not also mean there isn't one.

Oh please shut up – everything happens FOR NO REASON, no reason whatsoever. There is no conscious guide creating ironic, difficult, but enriching lessons for us. THINGS JUST HAPPEN, beyond our control and without any grand instructive plan. Sometime wonderful things happen. Sometimes unbelievably horrific things happen, for no reason, to good people. If you can learn and get stronger from the bad things that happen to you, then great - but don't pretend there was some higher "reason" that caused them to occur.

You feel better because you have convinced yourself that, the horrible things happening, is not for a reason. Probably because most people cannot comprehend the idea that all the bad things happening in the world is for a reason.
You cannot consider the thought that children are starving to death in africa and that lunatics are killing children mercilessly.

Think deeply and you will realise that everything that has happened to you, has made you exactly who you are today.............. so everything happens for a reason.....

Why would I choose to assume to know everything happens for no reason? Why would I assume consciousness ceases at death of this meat puppet body I occupy? I would have to be really closed-minded and insistent that my closed mind knows everything, when it seems a closed mind NO's everything. who nose? haha!

WOW HUGE Surprise that an article on Psychology Today aligns itself with "German philosophy" ie. socialist philosophical thought. Hegel was one of the fathers of what is today modern socialist thought and John Keynes' ideas (economist) is used, haphazardly so, as an excuse by modern socialists of why capitalism "doesn't work". This is a prime example of why the psychology industry has become nothing more than a tool for people that align themselves (knowingly or unknowingly) with german philosophy (yes, that's the same "ideology" as Marx and the Nazis) to spread their ideas and to control individuals with totalitarian beliefs of how we should be and act without regard to REASON or the human mind.

I think the argument can go both ways. someone came to me and asked "why do bad things happen to good people". I replied "so people can appreciate the good things in life" its the way of balance. It sucks if its you that is experiencing the bad so other people can be happy. There is a bigger picture then what's in my world or what I think is right or wrong. and if we don't learn from our mistakes then they will come back around.

Yes. Physics plays an important role in the modern World. Well, at least where I'm from. I'm not saying there isn't anyone at fault. It's my subconscious, and my neurons created the path long before the action was taken. Sometimes the answer to a question never changes.

I found this article as ive been askin y i had to meet my husband.aftr d wedding he was abusive and then i found out he hangs out w/ gay men and does drugs.less than 5 months unto d marriage he dies.afterwards i found out he had fullblown aids.i keep on askin wt is d reason i had to meet him,b in a relationship w/him for 3yrs then marry him and then to only have all these tragedies.i dont think any human being,no matter how bad they are,deservs something lyk ds to happen to them...

I fully believe that everything in life is ordained by God, that even in the direst and most heart wrenching of circumstances God speaks to us. Granted, life is not as simple as, "I know this happened for this reason," etc., and we may never know why something happened--either in this life or the next--but trials can make us stronger. We can learn to be compassionate and show mercy towards; we can realize, with humility, that there is much more to life than atheists or agnostics are able to see. Every time I look into my child's face, I see overwhelming evidence for God.

I don't believe that things are actually, officially happening for an assigned, predestined reason. But to help with the healing process, you can give/create your own reasons and meaning to whatever loss it is that you're going through. The saying, "Don't waste your pain."

Why is it so hard to believe that we convince ourselves that either "everything happens for a reason" or "everything happens randomly" to make ourselves feel better. The end. God, no God, random, planned, IT DOESN'T MATTER.

Well for many of us good single men nowadays that are really looking for a good woman to settle down with, and it has certainly become very dangerous for us men since the single women of today have really changed for the worst of all now. God forbid for many of us men just saying good morning or hello to a woman that we would really like to meet since many of times for no reason at all, we will get Cursed at by these very pathetic low life loser women too. It is like many of us men were just never meant to find real love at all, and these kind of women that are out there these days tells the whole story right there how very horrible that most of these women can be today. I had this happen to me already, and other friends that i know as well. So this is a very sad time for many of us men to be born in, and even God unfortunately really has no control over these women nowadays since they're very much out of control now more than ever. With most women sleeping around with so many different men all the time now, especially the ones that like to party and get wasted which really explains it as well. And to think that most women in the old days weren't like these very pathetic women today, which most women back then were real ladies since they were raised by very good parents as well, and that made love very easy to find in those days the way that it happened for our family members. If only God had made much better women today just like the old days which many of us single men definitely would've been all settled down by now with our own family that many of us still don't have today. And there are many of us good innocent men out there that would really know how to treat a good woman with a lot of love and respect that they don't give us at all today. And now you have so many of these women with their Careers today making a six figure income, and they really think that they're God's gift to men which they're a real joke anyway. And unfortunately the great majority of the women of today are looking for men with a lot of money as well, and this makes these type of women nothing but real users and such losers altogether now. It is very obvious why many of us men are still single today since love really wasn't meant to be for us thanks to these loser women today, and we really have no reason at all to blame ourselves either since it does really take two to tango.